Full Disclosure: Can you choke in Fantasy?

Now isn't the time to slump.

Every team struggles at times during the baseball calendar. It's a season of ups and downs, of highs and lows, of peaks and valleys -- or whatever analogy suits you best. No player or team can sustain the same performance over the entirety of a 162-game schedule. It's just too long.

And the same goes for Fantasy Baseball. Yeah, you'll find a few exceptions. Fewer teams means more readily available talent, which means more of it can end up on the same team. But for the most part, even the best Fantasy teams have two- and three-game losing streaks now and then.

The question is when. If it happens in early June, nobody really notices. The team still has plenty of time to regain its position and cruise into the playoffs with the No. 1 seed. But if it happens now, in the mad scramble for playoff positioning, it can ruin everything.

They have a word for that, actually: "choking."

My 10-team Head-to-Head mixed league knows all about it.

12-team mixed Rotisserie (1st; 5x5 Score: 80.5)

Before we jump into that cesspool of misery, let's bask in the forgiving stability of Rotisserie baseball, where only the big picture matters.

Yup, no losing streaks to worry about here. The stats just keep accumulating -- both good and bad -- as I inch my way up and down the standings.

The gradual climb continued last week as I broke the three-way tie at first place to claim the top spot all for myself. There's a first time for everything.

Much of the credit goes to Kendry Morales -- people still sit that guy? -- but the Chad Billingsley-for-Justin Upton trade has also paid dividends. I can't expect Upton to homer twice every week, but his recent hot streak only validates his emergence as one of the elite players in Fantasy. He's arguably the best hitter on my team -- yes, even better than Kevin Youkilis.

Notice I have Alberto Callaspo starting at DH this week in a rare case of me putting my money where my mouth is. I don't normally advocate the use of middle infielders at DH, but I listed Callaspo among my top sleepers in this week's Hitting Planner since he faces six left-handers and has a .398 batting average against them. I wanted to get rid of Luke Scott and didn't see anyone on waivers who inspired me, so why not?

It's just a one-week thing. In fact, as soon as the lineups locked, I released Callaspo for Aubrey Huff. I don't necessarily plan to keep Huff forever and ever, but he has a higher ceiling than Callaspo.

Maybe one of my opponents will drop one of his hitters later in the week, but for now, I can't do much better off the waiver wire than Huff. Other teams recently picked up Travis Hafner and Elijah Dukes, but I just don't see them helping much in a shallow league like this. Hafner stops hitting as soon as the Indians start playing him every day, and as a part-time player, he doesn't score or drive in enough runs for my purposes. And Dukes has his own bushel of problems. Even if he heats up, I can't trust him to stay healthy.

Of course, it's all about context. Keep that in mind when you see me rave about Dukes later.

10-team mixed Head-to-Head (6th; Record: 9-8)

With three straight losses, this league's highest-scoring team is now in sixth place. It's not funny.

I want to write it off as bad luck. I want to tell you I faced freakishly high scorers every week, but that's just not true. My team deserved to lose three straight, producing the third-lowest score each week.

So what's the problem? I wish I knew. Clearly, a once dominant team has suddenly become mediocre, but I haven't noticed a significant decline in production from any one player. In fact, my offense played pretty well last week, with every player scoring in double figures except for Ryan Doumit.

I can only assume everyone's just a little off. I've hit one of those low points in the season when enough of my players -- particularly the pitchers -- go cold at once that I end up lagging, ever so slightly, behind the other teams. It happens, yes, but I can't afford for it to happen now.

If I can point to any one player as the cause of my recent misfortune, it's Lance Berkman. My losing streak started the week he went on the DL with a calf injury. Todd Helton's a good player and all -- a worthy starter more often than not since he's a safe bet for 15-20 points -- but he can't rip off 30 points the way Berkman can and routinely did before the injury.

Without Berkman, my offense went from outstanding to above-average, and above-average isn't good enough to compensate for a week of poor pitching. That's why hitting is so important in Fantasy. Pitching by nature is hit-or-miss, but if you have a good enough offense, you have a chance of winning even during a "miss" week.

So I've decided to shop for another hitter -- one on the level of Berkman. If one injury puts me out of contention, my team isn't good enough. I have some lesser hitters to trade with the reemergence of Andre Ethier and Carlos Quentin, and I really should trade one of Jonathan Broxton, Ryan Franklin and David Aardsma since I can start only two. Of course, extra depth doesn't hurt there either. I'd feel better about making a trade if I had some assurance Leo Nunez would keep the job in Florida.

Speaking of Nunez, I added him this week just in anticipation of trading a closer. I had to cut Kevin Slowey anyway, so if Nunez forfeits the job to Matt Lindstrom, no harm done. On a low-scoring contender like the Marlins, Nunez could become a closer on the level of Fernando Rodney, if not better. I also dumped Dallas Braden for Brett Cecil. Cecil has pitched better than Braden of late and has more upside, so I figured I'd stash him and see what happens.

No sense in benching the red-hot Ethier as he returns home, where he tends to hit better. In an effort to get a Berkman-like 30 points instead of a Helton-like 15 points, I benched Denard Span for Quentin, who homered twice last week and might be on the verge of a hot streak.

Shane Victorino pinch hit twice over the weekend, so I think he'll return from his bruised knee Tuesday. I hope. I couldn't take the same chance on an injured pitcher, so I benched Wandy Rodriguez for the first time in weeks. J.A. Happ faces the Rockies at home, so he seemed like a good replacement -- better than Chris Volstad against the Nationals, who have hit surprisingly well lately.

12-team AL-only Rotisserie (5th; 5x5 Score: 60.0)

I anticipated a big trade deadline. That's why I saved all of my FAAB dollars.

Actually, I anticipated a big name moving from the NL to the AL at some point during the season, even if not on July 31. It usually happens -- it did for Mark Teixeira and Jason Bay last year -- but for whatever reason, all the big names floated to the NL this year. About the only exciting player who swam against the current was Jake Peavy, who hasn't pitched since June 8.

Thanks for the help, guys.

And I couldn't even win Peavy. Someone else saved enough money to snatch him away from me. I had to settle for Edwin Encarnacion, using every last one of my dollars to get him.

Sounds kind of steep, doesn't it? In a vacuum, it sure does. I could have saved that money for an August trade, assuming a relatively good player clears waivers. It could happen. It usually does.

But would it really be a better player than Encarnacion, who at least gets everyday at-bats and has 20-homer power? I don't see it happening, and with everyday players in high demand in this league, I didn't want to pass on this one for what ultimately amounted to nothing.

You could argue I should have spent less than the full amount on Encarnacion to budget for minor pickups later in the year, but who could I expect to get off a barren waiver wire, where no legitimate prospects even remain? Seriously, in a league so deep that I can't find anyone to replace struggling left-handed specialist David Robertson, what good are a few dollars?

And even though it didn't work out this year, I plan to take the same approach next year, saving all my money for the moment a big-name player changes leagues. Could I have spent some of that money earlier in the year and gotten Scott Podsednik? Yeah, I could have. But I could have just as easily gambled on Luis Valbuena instead and ruined my chance for any big midseason acquisition. I'll take Encarnacion, thank you very much.

Encarnacion immediately replaced Gabe Kapler as my DH, giving me, for the first time all year, a lineup full of people who play more often than not. I could also use Trevor Crowe, who I claimed off the waiver wire after the Indians called him up to play left field, but he's kind of in Alexi Casilla territory as far as hitters go. The only thing I can trust him to do is drain my batting average.

Chris Gimenez, another beneficiary of Cleveland's fire sale, intrigues me more, in part because he doesn't seem to intrigue anyone else. I just like that he qualifies at catcher even though he plays mostly outfield. Any offense from him would be an improvement for me at that position.

With those moves and the activation of Tim Wakefield, I cut Sean White, Randy Choate, Rich J. Hill and Tyler Flowers. With the Victor Martinez trade, I think Carlos Santana has a better chance of reaching the majors than Flowers does.

12-team NL-only Rotisserie (5th; 5x5 Score: 68.5)

I didn't have any FAAB dollars for the trade deadline in my NL-only league, having spent everything on Mark DeRosa earlier in the year. I put in $0 bids for all the players jumping to the NL just in case the rest of my league fell asleep or something. They didn't.

The only AL evacuee I got was Aaron Poreda, who the Padres promptly demoted to the minors. Great, that'll make up for the loss of Jerry Hairston. With a sudden excess of roster spots, I picked up prospect Pedro Alvarez, who at least has a chance to reach the majors for the rebuilding Pirates, and unheralded middle reliever Todd Coffey, who somehow slipped under the radar even at 7-percent ownership.

Now that I have Coffey, I think I'll sit Braden Looper except when he has two starts or an extremely favorable matchup, which doesn't include his start this week against the Dodgers. Coffey will do more for my ERA and WHIP, and he might even get more strikeouts than a one-start Looper.

The rest of my lineup didn't change much. I started Chad A. Tracy over renewed part-timer Travis Ishikawa since the Diamondbacks have the best hitting matchups in baseball this week, visiting the Pirates and the Nationals. Elijah Dukes replaced Hairston after the Nationals called him up, but I probably would have made that move even if the Reds hadn't traded Hairston. Will Venable replaced injured Nate Schierholtz, but again, I would have started Venable regardless after he homered in three straight games last week.

In case you're wondering how the bidding went for the rest of the players who changed leagues, Cliff Lee went for $64, Scott Rolen for $58, Adam A. LaRoche for $42 and Clayton Richard for $7. All seem like relative bargains to me. I would have paid a full $100 for LaRoche in my AL-only league, assuming he went to a team that would actually play him.

20-team mixed Head-to-Head (5th NL-only side; Record: 8-9)
(10 teams NL-only, 10 teams AL-only)

I learned a valuable lesson last week: Trading for pitching doesn't help if you have to start Craig Stammen anyway.

The esteemed Mr. Stammen scored me minus-20 in his two starts. If I had started Tim Stauffer instead -- or if I had started nobody instead -- I would have won. Instead, I lost by five points and pretty much have to go 3-0 the rest of the way to make the playoffs.

My competitors tell me I have a weak schedule the rest of the way, and they're probably right. Regardless, I'll need good luck to make the playoffs, and if I have to stake my whole season on luck, I've done something wrong.

My newly acquired pitchers, Joel Pineiro and John Lannan, didn't exactly set the world on fire, combining for 20 points. At least Jayson Werth scored only 15, not much more than Seth Smith's 12 1/2. I opted to sit Smith in favor of Elijah Dukes this week since the Rockies face three left-handed pitchers and the Nationals have a relatively favorable schedule. I also started Stauffer for Stammen, who I cut to add Dukes.

I need to get Lance Berkman back. Jose B. Reyes too. I don't have enough offense to win with this makeshift pitching staff.

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